Roseville & Big Shipment

 Some of you may be aware that I have had issues with my new machine as of last December not liking to quilt silk thread.  It was first detected in about February, and I was so busy with other things that I didnt give it too much thought.  Recently, when I was quilting my show quilt, and thinking I'd do some background fill in silk, it reared its ugly head again.  I futzed with it for nearly 8 hours over the course of a couple days.  My local rep's tech person who has done the servicing on my old machine for 7 years came to visit last Thursday.  After nearly 4 hours, he couldnt get it to run reliably. I was starting to feel pretty frustrated.  Not quilting silk is a definite deal breaker for me since my personal quilts use a ton of it.  Handi Quilter corporate got involved, as they should.  Anybody that knows HQ knows that their people are just fantastic.  I tried again to trouble-shoot for a day or so with their advice and suggestions.  On Friday, we decided that sending the head back to Utah for their top techies to look at it was best.  That is why the machine you see has all of it's "stuff" (handles, lights, laser, etc) removed, and awaiting another strong arm to get her into the big padded box.  With any luck in 2 weeks, she will be back and I will be onto those client quilts that seem to have slipped behind.  It is most unfortunate that my kids have 3 more weeks of school.  This is total crunch time for me.

Learning of the machine's fate on Friday, I had to burn the midnight oil this weekend to get my client's Roseville quilt finished.  It was partially ditched when all the troubleshooting began, and came off my frame 3 times last week. Lucky for me, I had a good plan of what I wanted to do, so after the ditching was done, the fills were fairly straight-forward.

I cannot imagine how many months my client spent appliqueing this -- it is absolutely phenomenal. Her applique is very clean, not a thread to be seen.   There is no excessive thickness like some appliques have either.  

There is certainly no excess of space for creative designing on my part, but I added simple frames and dense fills to pop the lovely applique.  One layer of wool batting is all it takes for this type of loft. 

 This freehand-feather filler is great for small backgrounds, and it fills in beautifully and quickly.

The center has so very much applique.  

And have a look at this insane embroidery...How many knots are there?!  It was a little challenging to quilt around, but hopefully looks ok.  I went a little lighter on the quilting  here since I had to use the 40wt thread.  Thank you machine, I would have much preferred the silk thread!

 The colors are simply yummy - it is a truly gorgeous design and execution.

 Some appliques were of a size that required stitching on them, but I always just try to keep this simple.

 Hope you enjoyed the pretty applique show...

 One last peek.

 

The next two weeks will be a diversion so I can deal with future teaching gigs, class prep for upcoming teaching, and finishing up a new book on the borders designs.  It all sounds so officebound. Maybe I will get some time in on this small quilt I have started.  These 4 star-dresdens are done, and there are 5 more needed.  It's most likely a pipe dream thinking this can possibly be done before the December Paducah deadline, but this girl is still dreaming just a little.

Have a fun quilty week!